@Publish

Of the 10,600+ brands we examine on a daily basis (see optimalsocial.com/portfolios for more on these across 100 sectors), we see about 2,400 (just less than 25%) have a tumblr presence.

25% of these are mostly empty and many appear to be brands squatting on their own names and planning to get to it later when they have time, perhaps. About 588 of these brand pages have fewer than 10 items of lifetime activity. Some brands like Pepsi are quite active, though the activity levels ebb and flow quite a bit, but others are far less so. The mean number of total engagements per brand on tumblr is 224 but the median is just two. Tumblr hasn’t yet figured out how to get users to engage with brands, yet, and it doesn’t seem that users are falling over themselves to engage with brands.

Tumblr’s content distribution model still needs to be sorted out, in order for brands to truly achieve viral distribution and authentic connections with consumers

Dropbox ended up being fastest 56% of the time. Even more importantly, it was slowest only 4% of the time.

Dropbox and Amazon appear to be the most reliable solutions with only occasional delays. Google isn't far behind, and I can't imagine that Microsoft won't work hard to improve Skydrive - the company's subscription model depends on it.

Each video will last a maximum of 15 seconds, suggesting Facebook has taken note of Vine’s offering – which is limited to a 6 second video format. A small number of big brands will be part of the initial trials, including Unilever, Nestlé, Ford, Diageo, American Express and Coca Cola. To create more impact (at least at the beginning) users will only see video content from one of these advertiser’s in any one day. The ads will be bought on a cost per thousand basis with rates predicted to be in the low $20s, a cost per engagement model is not currently being considered.

rapidly expanding online video advertising market - 41% growth Y.O.Y, US 2012.

what did Google announce today? A new way to get your company logo within the Google Knowledge Graph box, if Google decides to show one for your company.

Google’s post today says that Schema.org organization markup can be used now as a way for publishers to tell Google what preferred logo they’d like to appear there. Google’s post didn’t make it clear that this was happening only for the Knowledge Graph box, causing us to originally write that this was going to put logos next to search listings. However, Google has since clarified that logos do not show next to search results as with authorship, but rather, in the Knowledge Graph box that sometimes shows for companies. Just using the markup doesn’t guarantee that your logo will be used. It only helps suggest this to Google, which makes the ultimate decision.

for most companies, doing Google+ is going to be a far more effective way to gain logo visibility than using organizational markup. But the option is there, for those who just don’t want to be on Google+.

the goal was to introduce "conversational search." To have a conversation, you need a conversational partner.

It’s all very well having wearable technology that lets you livestream yourself hang gliding. But if it has all the sex appeal of orthodontic headgear, it’s unlikely to catch on.

Arguably, success in wearable technology hinges on making people look and feel good as much as providing a functional service. Developers might be happy to fork vast sums for the privilege of being a Google Glass owner, but when the product goes to mass market, fashion, or at least some sort of coolness and covetability will be as critical as functionality.

Context is more than location. Context is derived from a wealth of signals pulled from environmental, social, emotional, cultural, and economic factors. The current SMS push messaging campaigns, where an offer fires based on a customer's location, is just the beginning. As marketers mature in handling context, they will come to know that Mrs. Smith isn't interested in the store nearest her home, where the area has poor lighting and bad parking, but the one you have in the mall 10 miles further out. Why? Because she can visit your shop, along with six others, in the stress-free mall; leave her infant in the crèche; and pick up her husband from work on the way back. 

Smartphones and wearables are the Trojan horse for bringing this new data to brands, with the new Samsung S4 smartphone having nine built-in sensors, and Google Glass a staggering 13. These devices bring more environmental and emotional real-time data about location, orientation, movement, temperature, humidity, light levels, and other golden cues to help remotely view a moment

two-thirds of consumers would unsubscribe from brands promotions if they thought the messages were too frequent — in the UK, 27% said they would stop using the product completely. It's clear that brands have to respond by understanding context in order to set the appropriate cadence of messaging.

Connect to consumers in context. Having great content is not enough. Consider the context in which it will be consumed. Are your consumers looking for quick-hit information on their smartphones, snackable content on Facebook, or in-depth information on your website?  Create visible value. What topics can you credibly provide value on, through information, education, or entertainment? Don't just create it; make it clear where the value is provided. Continuously measure and optimize results. Go beyond tracking data to measuring impact. Tie results like brand lift, content shares, and unaided recognition of the content to metrics that run the business like leads or sales.

BuzzSpice found that 72 percent of the pages it studied exhibited what it called “manic-depression behavior,” not posting content in a consistent manner, but adding posts in flurries, then going silent for more than two weeks, in some cases.

Pages that do not stay in constant touch with their fans get decreasing score on the Facebook EdgeRank algorithm, lose visibility, and eventually disappear from their fans’ News Feeds.

Value Exchange Is the content valuable to the end user in some way? Entertainment has value, but so does utility. In either case, you need to understand what your audience values rather than just assuming they have an innate fascination in your brand talking about itself.

People want news they can share around the vending machine at work or via their Twitter handle.

When we see others doing something, we are often more apt to make that same choice ourselves.